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| Garnaut: good news or bad? Yes! |
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| Written by Jan Lee Martin | |
| Wednesday, 09 July 2008 | |
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Whether we see Professor Garnaut’s report on climate change as good
news or bad depends entirely on the lens through which we see the
world. Those who are anchored in the industrial realities of the 20th
century see it as an unwelcome interference with the basic task of
exploiting our natural resources, turning them into goods and services
and selling them to sustain the economy within which we live. They have forgotten that we don’t live in an economy. We live on a planet that has been seriously wounded by our activities. If we want it to provide a home for our children and theirs, we must create economies that conserve and sustain instead of those that prey and exploit. We know it’s possible: it’s been done before, by indigenous peoples all over the world. Admittedly the global population overload increases the magnitude of the challenge, but we have more tools now to apply to the task, including the capacity for instant sharing of what we learn. Nonetheless, climate change is a formidable challenge. How can we possibly see it as good news? Those of us who have been working hard for many years to warn of coming change may be delighted by the Garnaut Report. Finally the facts are emerging from the cloud of disinformation created by powerful vested interests. With the collapse of their info-blockade, perhaps the innovators will at last be free to get on with it. Now at last we can concentrate on fixing problems, turning climate change around, redesigning the way we live and work so that we can do it without destroying our habitat. The good news is that there are already millions of people around the world ready and willing to make the changes we need. The hardest part of tackling climate change will be changing our inherited ideas. But it’s time we did: the age of materialism has damaged more than the planet. In responding to the climate crisis, we and our children and theirs have an opportunity to imagine new futures that are better for everybody. |
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 ) |
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